Wow, and I mean Wow!!!!!!

[SeaCat]

Today my wife and I ripped the rug out of the living room of our place. This was expected, we're replacing the flooring of the entire trailer.

What wasn't expected was the multiple layers of plastic sheeting under the Carpet Pad. I couldn't understand this. I mean I can understand one layer covering the entire floor as a moisture barrier but this only covered a small section of the floor and was multiple layers. It was even taped down.

When I peeled it up I suddenly understood, and as my eyes watered I was ready to kill the former owner of the place. Now I understood why the cats avoided this part of the Living room. Now I understood the strange funk that seemed to invade whenever we let the place get a bit damp.

It seems one of the former owners hadn't house trained their dog properly. It had chosen this area as the proper place to relieve itself. It had gone through the original rug and into the wood underflooring.

Someone had replaced the rug, but instead of replacing the underflooring had just covered it over.

This is an area of roughly six feet by eight feet. I have knocked down the age old stench somewhat with several applications of a 50-50 mix of Bleach and water as well as multiple applications of Pet Odor Eliminator.

It's survivable for now but will soon be fixed permanently. I will be cutting out that section of flooring and replacing it. In a way though this is a blessing in disguise. It is an out of the way area, one with little foot trafic, which means it is the perfect place to put an access hatch so I can get under the trailer.

The stench though when I peeled back the Plastic was incredible. Even after all these years it made my eyes water and my cats sneeze.

Cat

 

[rgraham666]

Humans.

 

[Liar]

Let me be the first to say: Ew!

Well, in this thread, at least. I'm sure you've already said it.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Brilliant solution, people! Out of sight, out of mind!?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Buy a gallon of either "Z-Prime" or Zeolac" and paint the place where the dog peed. Give it a couple days to dry really well. The stench will be incapsulated. However, I should warn you, Zeolac is the better of the two, but it smells really bad and will for about a day after you use it.

Either product will work though.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

I looked at a Victorian house for sale near my neighborhood a few years ago. It was inhabited by an old woman and 50 cats. All the floors were completely impregnated. I'm sure it was hazardous just to breathe the air - I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The house would have been worth c. $150k in its location. Naturally it never sold, and is essentially a tear-down - a total loss, beyond redemption.

 

[SeaCat]

The underflooring in that area will be completely removed. I will cut it back at least six inches beyond the staining/aroma area. It will be replaced.
(There is no question about this.)

As I said there is a good point to this. I was wondering where I would place the Access hatch to get under the trailer. Now I now.

What amazes me is how lazy people are.

The wor to replace the underflooring will take me rougly three days. One to gather the materials, one to cut out the section and reframe it, and one to cut the new flooring including the access hatch.

Why didn't they do this originally?

Oh what the hell. It's my place now and within the next year I will have created the closest thing to a Hurricane Proof Mobile Home there is. (I believe in German Engineering.))

Cat

 

[Guest]

i feel so much sympathy for you.
when we first moved into the love shack, the smell from the animals the previous owners had was more than we could handle. so, we had to replace carpet and treat the underflooring with bleach just as you did...however, we were fortuneate in that the bleach was all we needed to kill the smell...

rock on, cat~

 

[oggbashan]

I looked at a Victorian house for sale near my neighborhood a few years ago. It was inhabited by an old woman and 50 cats. All the floors were completely impregnated. I'm sure it was hazardous just to breathe the air - I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The house would have been worth c. $150k in its location. Naturally it never sold, and is essentially a tear-down - a total loss, beyond redemption.

Years ago my brother bought a house built in 1639 that had been used as a dog sanctuary inside and out. It was in terrible condition and his home-loan lenders suggested that he would be better advised to buy a newly-built four bedroom executive house in the estate being built across the road.

He persisted and bought the house. He had to get contractors with bulldozers to clean the half-acre garden that was full of wooden sheds used as dog kennels. Apart from the kitchen and one bedroom the whole interior had been subdivided into kennels for dogs who had defecated on the wooden floors. There was a wrecked cottage that was part of the property. An upstairs window was missing, as was the floor between the ground and upper level. Used meat bones had been thrown through the open window for years and the pile filled the whole ground plan to a height of twelve feet. He sold the bones for fertiliser.

Inside the main house he removed the wooden kennels and burnt them with the massive pile of wrecked huts. He thought he could sand the floor with a mechanical sander. The sander just tore the sanding disks to pieces. The floors were oak that had been 150 years old when the house was built and had been part of a ship. He discovered that not only was the oak immune to the efforts of the sander, but that the dog shit and piss had not penetrated. He washed the floors with detergent. The water didn't seep through the joins. The carpenter had fitted the oak boards so tightly that the joins were waterproof. Later he found that the oak boards, 18 inches wide and up to thirty feet long, were three inches thick and very heavy.

It took him 15 years to renovate that house to his satisfaction while his four children grew up in it. When eventually he sold it to buy a smaller (and older) house in the same village, he sold it for three times the current price of the executive homes opposite.

After the first week, no one smelled any trace of dog. Our ancestors knew how to build. Tar and seasalt impregnated oak over 500 years old is proof against anything dogs could do, or woodworm, or death watch beetle and rot. It also broke tungsten tipped drills. Only diamond drilling allowed pipework to be fitted...

Og

PS. Eventually the cottage was renovated to be a separate home for his eldest daughter, having been a garage with artist's studio above until then.

 

[FallingToFly]

I looked at a Victorian house for sale near my neighborhood a few years ago. It was inhabited by an old woman and 50 cats. All the floors were completely impregnated. I'm sure it was hazardous just to breathe the air - I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The house would have been worth c. $150k in its location. Naturally it never sold, and is essentially a tear-down - a total loss, beyond redemption.

HA! I would have had so much fun with that- buy it for a song and then bring in the crew to rip out everything from the floors, scrub it down with vinegar, then lysol, then bleach- a solid day of air-out between scrubbings- and then seal the floors like Jenny suggested. After that, it's just a matter of the time and money to install new hardwood floors and patch, paint, paper, etc. Working in so many barns I have seen some incredibly nasty things and situations. You would be amazed what a hell of a lot of elbow grease and a determined bunch of insanely hyper-active skater punks can accomplish.

 

[rachlou]

I looked at a Victorian house for sale near my neighborhood a few years ago. It was inhabited by an old woman and 50 cats. All the floors were completely impregnated. I'm sure it was hazardous just to breathe the air - I couldn't get out of there fast enough. The house would have been worth c. $150k in its location. Naturally it never sold, and is essentially a tear-down - a total loss, beyond redemption.

I knew a house near my mother-in-law where an old lady had lived alone for many years. She eventually died and the house went back into the care of the local authority (who owned it). It turned out that she had had a small incontinence problem in her final years. She had given up the troubling trek to the toilet and just relieved herself wherever she happened to be at the time. The floors/carpets etc were in no fit condition for human habitation. The council had to completely gut the place before it could be offered to a new tenant. Nice!

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

HA! I would have had so much fun with that- buy it for a song and then bring in the crew to rip out everything from the floors, scrub it down with vinegar, then lysol, then bleach- a solid day of air-out between scrubbings- and then seal the floors like Jenny suggested. After that, it's just a matter of the time and money to install new hardwood floors and patch, paint, paper, etc. Working in so many barns I have seen some incredibly nasty things and situations. You would be amazed what a hell of a lot of elbow grease and a determined bunch of insanely hyper-active skater punks can accomplish.

There are limits. My partner actually called a cleaning company, and the experienced propreitor explained on the phone that "ve haf vays" to get rid of that scent. He changed his tune when he inspected the place. This had been going on for years, and cat urine had soaked right throught the floor and the underflooring - it was in the 100-year-old floor joists, on both stories. Into the structure, that is. He walked out shaking his head. It really was a tear-down.

 

[R. Richard]

There are limits. My partner actually called a cleaning company, and the experienced propreitor explained on the phone that "ve haf vays" to get rid of that scent. He changed his tune when he inspected the place. This had been going on for years, and cat urine had soaked right throught the floor and the underflooring - it was in the 100-year-old floor joists, on both stories. Into the structure, that is. He walked out shaking his head. It really was a tear-down.

You have identified the heart of the problem. Enthusiatic amateurs always see a situation that can be solved with lots of hard work and a few cans of "Odor-Be-Gone." A professional sees that there are structural problems that will undermine any sort of cosmetic repair.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

You have identified the heart of the problem. Enthusiatic amateurs always see a situation that can be solved with lots of hard work and a few cans of "Odor-Be-Gone." A professional sees that there are structural problems that will undermine any sort of cosmetic repair.

To be fair, this was an extrordinary situation. 'Cat's is much more typical, but even his necessary repairs illustrate that this is a challenging problem - he's having to replace subfloors.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Zealoc and seawater... *makes notes for next time the cats decide to use the carpet for a toilet*http://www.pollyjuice.se/Smileys/yuck.gif

 

[SeaCat]

Okay, I now have a small pile of lumber in my patio. (Much to the Herds disgust.) I also have a smaller pile of hardware.

Two sheets of 1 inch Marine Grade Plywood. (In case I screw up the cuts.) A small mountain of 2x4's. Several 4x4's. (Two sheets of 1/4 inch Plywood to cover the hole when I'm in work so the Herd doesn't go exploring.)

Several boxes of plated screws in various lengths. Hinges. A handle. A new Saw Blade.

I have already run a test drill hole through the wood to check it's thickness. (One inch) I will set the saw for a one inch cut.

I have marked the outlines of the cut. One sheet of Plywood will cover it nicely, if I don't have to expand it to reach surrounding supports. (I don't think Ill have to. My Stud Finder came in handy for finding the joists.) Tomorrow when I get home from work I'll cut out the offending section of wood and inspect the joists. If everything goes right I'll be able to frame the hole tomorrow as well.

Day after tomorrow, Saturday, I'll start cutting the replacement wood, including the access hatch. Once it's cut and framed I'll drop it in place and screw it down.

By Sunday I should be able to put the hatchway in place and paint the entire floor with Anti-Mold Paint. (Killz)

Then I rip out the Kitchen floor as well as the hallway.

Once these are done I'll take apart the bed and move the dressers and tear out the rug in the bedroom.

When everything is ready I'll drive up to Melbourn and pick up the Moisture Barrier and the Laminate and start on that. Putting that in should take less than a week.

Cat

 

[JRaven]

Dog urine...
* makes note on how to keep cat away from plants *

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I've got it! I've got it! ​

SeaCat must have found one of the long rumored Weapons of Mass Destruction. Who'd a'thunk they'd hide a chemical one in Florida?

Rumple Foreskin

 

[SeaCat]

I've got it! I've got it! ​

SeaCat must have found one of the long rumored Weapons of Mass Destruction. Who'd a'thunk they'd hide a chemical one in Florida?

Rumple Foreskin

From the stench, I would have to agree with you. It made cheap Cigars and Buck Lure smell mild by comparison.

It shall soon be removed.

Now if I could remove the headaches caused by my neighbors as easily my life would be nice.

Cat

 

[glynndah]

Maybe you can sneak the piece of wood under your neighbor's trailer.....

 

[SeaCat]

Maybe you can sneak the piece of wood under your neighbor's trailer.....

That is an idea, and while I'm tempted to do that or worse, (I have a bottle of Buck Lure. ) I'm trying to be nice.

Now if we had skunks around here I would lure a couple under her place and piss them off.

Cat